BBC News (UK) presentation - Reith launch onwards

I'm curious as to why that would be. I always thought the immediate pressure was on DTT to free up spectrum for 5G and other services, whereas DSat can pretty much carry on as it is. I know Sky is dipping its toe in the water of dishless IP delivery for those who can't have a dish on their house, but I've not heard of anything suggesting they're working towards a switchover.

Because in a television landscape that is increasingly VOD-driven and far less linear, transition to IP is pretty much inevitable.

If you're going to have to invest in IP anyway to keep your audience then why bother with the additional expense of DTH satellites when IPTV is already mature enough to deliver all of your content, VOD or linear.

Sure, there's a coverage issue right now - but once that's properly dealt with (big if, I grant you) there is little advantage of DSAT.

Even then, I don't see that happening in the next decade. The quality of broadband isn't yet good enough universally across the UK and even once that is achieved, any transition would not happen quickly.

It’s all about bums on seats though, more people have access to >30 meg broadband than COM7/8 on DTT. I hear what you say, but things will accelerate towards on line delivery ( and don’t assume that’ll necessarily be via fibre or copper)

More likely if the Vaizey plan of 2011 which has HD only Emission for PSB

Two hours until World News Today is Reithed

Indeed. A friend of mine commented this week that on a new housing estate near him that has been built with direct fibre to each dwelling, he noticed one house has a Sky dish. ‘Why the f**k did they do that ?’ he asked me rhetorically

I've given the new look the benefit of a week. There are many things I like, including the font and slick animations, but there are lots of issues and inconsistencies. Apologies for the essay, but here’s my take.


Font consistency

I quite like the font and it does make BBC News look distinctive, but there’s a frustrating lack of consistency. To name just a few: ‘Live’ in Business Live is Serif, ‘Live’ in Afternoon Live is Sans Serif, the Breakfast title clock is Serif, the permanent on-screen clock is Sans Serif. ‘Business’ in Business Live is Sans Serif, yet on the news channel is Serif. Pick a format and stick with it please.




Flipper v ticker

I do prefer the flexibility of a ticker but this flipper does look very neat and clearly is more legible on mobile. Really like the flashing breaking idea, but I would appreciate a bit more content on there: no sport or business headlines?


Size and space

People watch television for the pictures; graphics should only be there to improve understanding of the story. This is a principle that seems to be increasingly lost. These graphics are so much bigger, provide no greater clarity and at times even clash with people's faces because they are so high. The worst offenders are the headlines and I’m glad the national bulletins and some regions have quickly seen sense and kept those to one line rather than two.

Victoria Derbyshire is an absolute mess - boxes and spaces everywhere with nothing working together. The permanent black bar is a bizarre waste of space and the breaking aston seems to have such a huge red box. I’ve had a quick go at removing the black bar and amending the astons to suit and even this simple change seems to make it better.







Though I still would have preferred something more radical.




4:3

I appreciate the BBC's concern about going 16:9 as there are people who still have 4:3 televisions. I tried to show in a mock I did recently that there is some content that could move out of 4:3 that wouldn't impact the viewer too much (the logo and programme name for example).


Surrounding presentation

Despite the long time it has taken to implement, it would have been better to take another six months to get the news titles (and for World the now-butchered ident) updated, particularly as black now features heavily in the astons. 11 years on and we still have the same sequence, and it was in much more need of a refresh than the straps.


Overall, it’s a nice look, but I think the previous graphics were better. I understand people have worked hard on this but there is space for critique. I doubt any of us here have directed a Hollywood movie but we will have all at some time slated one. Constructive criticism is positive and most of us are doing it to try and improve a national broadcaster that we're very proud of.

Looks like World News Today hasn't adpoted the new regional titles

Did they just Reith the old ones then?

Yes, which is odd maybe waiting for Beyond 100 Days summer break to relaunch

First look at the telephone contributor graphics just now.